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Nahanni Butte and Fort Liard are being told to “monitor conditions closely” with a rainstorm forecast over the Nahanni and broader Dehcho in the coming days.
In a Wednesday bulletin, the territorial government said a rain event that began on Tuesday night “will persist over the next several days and into the weekend,” bringing up to 40 mm of rain across much of the region.
Pockets of up to 100 mm are possible, the GNWT added.
“At this time, we’re not anticipating that rivers will reach flood levels, but of course it’s always something that people should be aware of regarding changing weather conditions and changing river conditions,” senior hydrologist Anna Coles told Cabin Radio, “especially folks that are travelling on the rivers and working on the land next to the rivers.”
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Rain will help in Fort Simpson, which is under an evacuation order as more than 100 firefighters tackle wildfire FS016, but it poses a potential flood risk elsewhere.
Water levels on the Liard River are slightly above average, while the South Nahanni River’s level is well above average.
“It’s a convective rain event, which means it’s uncertain in terms of where the heaviest bullseye of the rain will fall and how much will fall, but it certainly looks likely that the South Nahanni River will receive quite a bit of rain,” said Coles.
“It’s a mountain river, it can respond really quickly to rainfall … Nahanni Butte is located at the mouth of that river, and it has experienced summer rainfall-related flooding in the past. For all of those reasons, it’s always one that we like to monitor really closely during heavy rain events.
“We do expect the water levels to rise on the South Nahanni River and potentially other mountain rivers, but at this time we don’t think the river water levels will reach flood levels”.”
